In the architecture for a modern telecommunications system, one or more telecommunications platforms may provide interoperability of services and functionality across multiple network technologies, applications, and access types, and also enhanced security and mediated access. Each telecommunications platform may comprise a number of software elements or applications which support a variety of communications, including, but not limited to, local telephony, toll (i.e., long-distance), wireless, intelligent network (IN), and residential video.
Previously, in order to test the operation of these software applications, a human user was required to periodically invoke one or more utility programs, wait for the utility programs to check each application, and then review the information output by the utility programs as a result of the checks. This previous technique for testing the software applications on a telecommunications platform was problematic for numerous reasons. For example, because the amount of result information generated by each utility program could be voluminous, the process of reviewing such information was generally tedious, time consuming, and inefficient. Furthermore, given the amount of result information, it was often difficult for a human user to identify software applications which were not operating properly.